PHOTOS: Mom beats stage 4 cancer

Ashley and David with their three children. (Photo: COURTESY ASHLEY HALLFORD)

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Ashley and David with their three children. (Photo: COURTESY ASHLEY HALLFORD)

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Shortly thereafter, they decided to start trying for a baby – and it happened immediately. Although shocked, they were over the moon.

About a month into her pregnancy, Ashley noticed a knot on the back of her head had become hard and painful.

“I actually discovered (the knot) right before I got pregnant,” she explains. “But I wrote it off to be a lymph node because it didn’t really hurt.”

As the pain continued to worsen, Ashley visited an ear, nose and throat specialist, who thought it was an infection in the salivary gland. She took some medication, and the lump shrunk. Ashley repeated this cycle of "medication and recovery" until she was about 32 weeks pregnant.